SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Apr 08 (IPS) – On March 18, the first plane with deportees from the US landed in Cap-Haïtien. Of the 46 passengers, 25 were convicted felons. Taking effect on April 24 the US Department of Homeland Security will revoke the temporary legal status of more than 210,000 Haitians. They had by the Biden administration been granted a safe haven, but all these Haitians are now expected to be deported back to a country immersed in a humanitarian crisis.
Escaping poverty and violence, Haitians have also crossed the border into neighboring Dominican Republic, where they are constantly running the risk of being captured and transported back across the border. An activity that has given rise to a multifaceted and difficult-to-investigate corruption, including politicians, lawyers and the police. In 2024, The Dominican Republic deported more than 270,000 Haitians. In the last three months of this year alone, over 90, 000 “foreigners with irregular status” have been deported under a new operation aiming to remove 10,000 undocumented Haitians per week. This from a country where more than 75 percent of the estimated 800,000 Haitians are working full-time, particularly in agriculture and construction.
In the past month alone, violence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince displaced over 60,000 people. Only since the beginning of March, attacks by armed gangs have displaced more than 24,000 people. Desperate people are seeking refuge in 48 displacement sites, others have turned to host families. Despite ongoing efforts, the scale of need far exceeds available resources, this while the Trump administration has ended the USAID’s support to Haiti.
Efforts to curb gang violence have so far been inadequate. A UN supported contingent of around 800 Kenyan police, working alongside Haiti’s National Police, is leading a mission against the gangs, who are supported by drug- and arms traffickers. So far, one Kenyan officer has been killed and two others have been seriously injured.
Violence has escalated since October last year, when gangsters attacked the town of Pont-Sondé, killing 115 people. In November, gang attacks forced more than 20,000 people to leave their homes in the Capital. Between December 6 and 11, at least 200 innocent people were killed by gangsters in Wharf Jérémie, one of the worst slums in Port-au-Prince. In the same month, a community self-defence group lynched 10 gang members in l’Artibonite, the response was not long in coming and approximately 100 men, women and children were wantonly murdered. On December 17, a gang attacked the Hôpital Bernard Mevs in Port-au-Prince, setting it on fire and on Christmas Eve, gangs attacked the Hôpital général, the Capital’s largest hospital, killing several patients, at least two journalists and a police officer. Since then, the killings and general abuse have not ceased. People are getting increasingly desperate. On March 20, when protesters demanding protection tried to reach the Prime Minister’s office, the police dispersed the crowd by firing tear gas. At least 85 percent of Port-au-Prince is currently controlled by armed, criminal gangs.
No airlines fly to Port-au-Prince anymore. US aviation authorities have indefinitely banned all flights . If you want to get out from the country the only open airport is in Cap-Haïtien and you have to fly by helicopter. The cost is USD 2,500 and you are only allowed to bring 10 kilos of luggage. By early 2025, the number of people forced to leave their homes as a result of gang violence had reached over a million.
All this on top of earthquakes, hurricanes, centuries of political oppression and catastrophic environmental degradation. Born as the world’s first republic ruled by former slaves, Haiti has for more than two centuries suffered from the racist contempt of the outside world and an overpopulation originally caused by the 800,000 slaves imported by the French to their colony of Saint-Domingue (which later became Haiti). A country which tropical soils could not even then feed them all. On top of the misery, Haiti was until 1947 forced to pay reparations for taking possession of the “property” that their French oppressors had usurped.
To place a human face on the current situation we interviewed a skilled Haitian worker living in the Dominican Republic. For obvious reasons he wanted to remain unidentified.
How old are you and for how many years have you been living in the Dominican Republic?
I am 43 years old and have been working here for 28 years.
How did you first come here and what did you work with then?
I bought a false passport and a visa, something that made my entry legal and began to work collecting coffee for 50 cents a day, later on I could earn the equivalent of one US dollar a day, by weeding fields and collecting tomatoes.
Why did you leave Haiti and do you still have a family there?
I come from a village outside of Thomassique, not far from the Dominican border. We are eight siblings, my five brothers still live there, as well as my two sisters. The soil does not yield as much as before, being constantly degraded by draught. My father opposed he Duvalier regime and the Tonton Macoutes wanted to kill him. He was in hiding for six years until he died when I was eleven. We were starving. When I was fifteen, I left for the Dominican Republic. Every other year I try to visit Haiti. I have two sons living there, 12 and 13 years old. They live with a brother of mine and go to school there. I also have a 14 years old girl , who for five years has been living with us here in the Dominican Republic. She lacks papers and I had to take her out of the public school. So far, I cannot afford a private one.
You are now working with masonry. What is your education?
I went to school up until the sixth grade. I had to quit to help my mother and siblings. In the Dominican Republic my earnings were hardly enough to sustain myself. However, a friend helped me to find a job where I learned to do masonry and produce tiles. I am now able to do any kind of skilled masonry.
How much do you earn?
I am no longer with the masonry workshop, earning better by collaborating with an engineer involved with the construction of private villas. It is not a steady work. I am paid per hour and if I work from sunrise to sunset, I can generally earn the equivalent of 15 US dollars. Covering a middle-sized kitchen with tiles would earn me around 30 dollars. However, I seldom find work for more than fifteen days a month. I have to send money for my children in Haiti and support my wife and daughter her in the Dominican Republic.
Is your wife working as well?
No, she cannot even leave the apartment.
Why not?
She does not have any papers and I cannot afford getting any, neither for her, nor for our daughter. They risk to be caught in the street and deported to Haiti. Paperless Haitians are rounded up and brought to a compound, when enough are assembled they are locked up in special, barred busses and brought to the border, where they are let off. Some are not even born in Haiti; they have to find their way as best as they can. The trip to the frontier means several hours without food or water, and no possibility to visit the toilet. Mothers caught in this manner have to leave their children behind, to care for themselves until someone brings them to the authorities. If you are caught, the police generally ask for the equivalent of 5 dollars to let you go, not all are carrying so much money.
Would you prefer to live in Haiti?
Of course, there you feel free. You are among friends and equals. Dominicans assume they are better than Haitians. They look down upon us and depict us as criminals. To consider all Haitians as enemies to Dominican wellbeing has for centuries been part of Dominican politics. I understand them … no one wants strangers living in their house. I have no problem with the Dominicans I work together with, they respect my skills. However, everywhere else I feel questioned and despised.
Do you have a work permit?
I have to renew it every year and to do so I have to pay a lawyer working with the Dirección General de Migración. Before you could do it on your own. The lawyer arranges all the papers for you, and computerizes them. It is big business; the papers do not exist in reality. It costs me 25 dollars every year. Without work permit you live in fear all the time.
What do you want most of all?
To find work in any country except here. In Haiti, I cannot support myself, but with my skills it is possible anywhere else. If I could afford it, I would travel to Mexico and cross the border into the US. I might also find work in Latin America.
After our interview, which was carried out in another town, the mason took the bus back to Santo Domingo. The driver noticed his work tools and assumed he carried money. When the other passengers had left the bus in Santo Domingo, the mason was detained by the driver and his assistant, who demanded more money. If the mason did not pay, they threatened to denounce him to the authorities. When he said he had a work permit the driver menaced him with a machete. However, a bystander noticed what was happening and convinced the assailants to let him go.
